Dodecahydrangea
Hydrangea is a term which can apply to a number of species of flowering plants on Earth, though so far on The Land only one type has been discovered (a type which does not exist on Earth, according to spirits). Dodecahydrangeas are so named by adding the prefix "dodeca-", which means "twelve." This refers to the fact that dodecahydrangea bushes produce flowers of a different color for each month of the year. Each month's bloom lasts for precisely one month before dying and being replaced by the next month's bloom, in the following pattern: *Fir'mo' = infrared *Win'yet = red *Sp'gin = orange *Sp'mo' = yellow *Sp'yet = green *Su'gin = white *Su'mo' = magenta *Su'yet = cyan *Aut'gin = blue *Aut'mo' = violet *Aut'yet = ultraviolet *Las'mo' = black Flowering dodecahydrangea bushes were discovered in 404 by the settlers of Monab, a large number of whom were spirit-talkers. On the first anniversary of the founding of the village, Bishop Archibald asked a spirit he knew about the nature of the planet and its changing coloration. He learned from the spirit that the colors were primarily based on the electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelengths of which are measured in nanometers (which is part of the Metric System, a system of measurement not used on the Land). The only exceptions to this were the months when the flowers were white and black (as these are not technically a part of the spectrum; objects appear white when reflecting all colors and black when absorbing all colors). Two other oddities are the months when the flowers appear infrared and ultraviolet, which, though part of the spectrum, are not visible to the human eye, and therefore not true colors. If you've never seen a dodecahydrangea flower in either Aut'yet or Fir'mo', it's impossible to describe what the flowers look like in those months. In fact, even if you have seen them, it's impossible to describe. One might expect them to appear invisible, since the light they reflect is not part of the visible spectrum, and yet... they can be seen. They do not appear white, black, or transparent, nor do they appear as "deep violet" or "deep red," or any other color. In fact it is rumored that a visitor to Monab once went mad from trying to put the appearance into words, though there are no records of such a thing ever actually having happened. Though technically the flowers are all called dodecahydrangeas regardless of their color, it is not uncommon to refer to the flowers by names specific to the month in which they bloom. For example, green dodecahydrangea flowers would be called "Sp'yetflowers." It should also be noted that there is a local law against exporting dodecahydrangeas to any other village. This law was suggested in 406 by Archibald, who personally spent much of his free time landscaping his church's grounds. The flowers became a particular favorite of his, and over the years they became quite popular with many of the spirit-talkers who visited the village, whether for the annual Pilgrimage (when the bloom was of white Su'ginflowers), or at any other time of year. Archibald believed the plant to be a miracle, created by God as a sign that the village's settlers had chosen the proper location to found Monab, which became the religious center of the world. (The settling of Monab had been done specifically as a place to establish The Order, and dodecahydrangeas have since become something of a symbol of the Order.) See also *Flora of the Land Category:Science